michael: it is. it has been a significant year in the history of south carolina. the confederate flag coming off of the statehouse, the shootings, all of that. we will be going through the speech with her line by line. it is no doubt going to be full of that kind of material. carol: one of the interesting things in her speech, one of the things that is expected, we understand she wants $11 billion prosecutors for the state of south carolina.this is all to combat what is seen as south abuse numbers in the state. to be a woman. that has been known for several years. it is also referred to -- that andy emanuel nine, she says that

-- pinckney. carol: as you mentioned, this has been a year that has really been a challenge to her leadership. a lot of guys have in on her throughout the year. of course, in the summer with the church massacre in charleston, and also with the flooding, bad weather, roads problems that developed in the fall.it has been a challenge a lot of people have looked to her to say. she has risen to the challenges. michael: she delivered the republican response to president obama's state of the union. that was a great moment for her in her political career. she took heat from it, because of talking about loud voices, many thought it was an allusion to donald trump. she mentioned that trump is a friend of hers.

way to the front of the chamber. she will meet a friend, lieutenant governor henry mcmaster, who is a competitor in the governor's race with her, but quickly became a friend when he withdrew. he threw his support behind her. during that particular contest. and then he went on to run for lieutenant governor. he is the last person who will run for the office, and will be handled differently in the next election. nikki haley will be governor until 2019. michael: the move toward a cabinet form was actually started many years ago by governor djitte -- carol campbell, the late carol campbell. lots of pleasantries as the governor makes her way up. it is going to be interesting to see and gauge the spirit of the room tonight. many things have happened in the last year in the state of south

michael:carol: let's listen in to the lieutenant governor as he introduces her. they might be waiting for everybody to settle down first. michael: could be. this is an opportunity for some gladhanding. >> ladies and gentlemen, please be seated. ladies and gentlemen of the joint assembly and honored guests, i'm proud to present to you the honorable nikki haley, governor of south carolina. [applause] governor haley: thank you very

thank you very much. [applause] thank you. mr. speaker, mr. president, ladies and gentlemen of the general assembly, constitutional officers, and my fellow south carolinians, each year we come together to discuss the state of the state, and each year we begin by acknowledging those who lost their lives in the service of our state and nation. by the grace of god, this will be the first year i do not list a single active duty member of

it is indeed a blessing that the men and women of our military are not alone in their willingness to sacrifice for us. please join me as we pay tribute to those who gave the last full measure of devotion in the service of south carolina, and her people. officer gregory thomas, columbia. officer stacey lynn, columbia. deputy sheriff delton daniels. firefighter stuart gregory hardy. firefighter kenneth michael stanton senior, pendleton. firefighter tyron westen,

carolinians, to their families, know we will never forget. [applause] i have always felt blessed to have the support of my family. michael has always been my most trusted advisor. this year, that would be the best even more true. he supported me through the grief, the decisions we made, and the prayers as we moved forward through south carolina's tragedy. the public servant is only as strong as the strength she has at home. help me welcome my strength, my partner and the coolest first man ever, michael haley.

hard to believe how much my little ones have grown. they have spent so much of their lives in the public eye. they handle it in a way that makes us so proud. this is my daughter's last year at home before she goes to college. and my son is finishing his last year in middle school. help me welcome my pride and joy. [applause] recently, we lost a senator whose warmth and graciousness touched so many at the statehouse and across his district. billy o'dell was a loving

for more than 25 years, his work and the people of this district place. along with his wife, his son and daughter-in-law, and his daughter, we mourn his passing. mrs. o'dell, your husband was loved legos and the chamber, and by so many more outside of it. thank you and your family for to our state.

this has been a difficult and different kind of year for south carolina. i year that warrants a different kind of speech. while there is plenty to celebrate, it would be neither honest nor productive to ignore the great challenges that were thrust upon south carolina in 2015. ladies and gentlemen, the state of our state is bent, but not broken. as i look around this distinguished chamber tonight, there is a whole. -- hole. it is felt beyond the statehouse. it tore deeply through the soul of south carolina. senator clementa pinckney served the people of south carolina and this very building for 18 years. he should be sitting with us tonight. sadly, he is not. this is an infinitely dimmer

it lives on in his work, in his church, and his friends. it will soon live on in the portrait his colleagues will raise in the senate chamber across the hall. but most of all, it lives on in his family, and his wife, jennifer, and are too beautiful dollars -- two beautiful daughters. they are here tonight. these join me and all of south carolina and paying our deep

thank you for taking the time to be with us. this is an infinitely brighter room because you are here. in the days following the tragedy of mother emanuel, and the many months since, i have thought a great deal about the senator. i did not know him well, but i knew in every interaction we had, he was always kind and respectful. i knew him to be a goodhearted public official. i knew him to be a senator who spoke infrequently, but when he did, it was with great intensity, and even greater authority. i knew him to be a man who never seek to speak against anyone or anything, but instead to advocate for the people and the ideas he believed in. the building we sit in invites disagreement. that's a good thing, healthy thing.

believe the same things, nor should we be silent about where and when we differ. but disagreement does not have to mean division. honest policy differences do not need to morph into personal dislike, distrust, and dissolution. after all, to paraphrase something i read last june, we are more than just members of warring political tribes, but brothers and sisters and fellow south carolinians. the senator was more than just a senator. he was a father, a husband, a brother, a son, and a reverend. we should all spend a little more time getting to know the people behind the policies. [applause] before the tragedy of mother emanuel in june, there was a

april.we all recall what happened in that case . mr. scott was stopped by a north charleston police officer for having a broken tail light. what ensued was caught on video for the entire world to see. mr. scott began to run away from the officer, who shot him repeatedly in the back, tragically ending his life. we were betrayed by one of our own. the vast, vast majority of police officers in the nation are honorable men and women. they keep us safe. but unfortunately, what happened in north charleston on april 4 was not a unique event in america today. what happened after was. in the face of overwhelming video evidence that something had gone talk -- terribly wrong, south carolina did not interrupt in riots or violence. instead, we focused on justice and progress.

family, progress for our state. that focus meant everything to south carolina, and it began with the scott family. they started the calming of the community. their worth and actions allowed south carolina to gush the chance to right the wrong. their response drove ours. two months after mr. scott was senselessly killed, i stood with his family and signed into law the first body camera built in america. i was proud to stand with the scott family that day. i am proud to recognize mr. walter scott senior, his wife, judy, and their son and

thank you for your graciousness in a time of unimaginable sorrow. south carolina will forever grieve the loss of your son. and be forever grateful to you and your family for helping us learn from your tragedy. grow from it, and take action to make sure, to the best of our abilities, it never happens again. south carolina was devastated by man-made tragedies in 2015. as if that wasn't enough, last year it saw the biggest natural disaster our state had endured, in hurricane hugo.

conducted emergency tabletop exercises that allow us to go through disaster situations in real time. each year, we work to improve our planning and preparations. the disaster we always thought we were prepared for was a hurricane. thankfully, that hurricane has not come this way. what did in 2014 were to winter storms that challenged our infrastructure, utility companies, and our resources. south carolina shined through those storms. but this year, with something neither we nor the weathermen could have ever imagined. rain at unbelievable levels, pouring from the sky for hours. enough rain, according to one report, to give each american one bottle of water every day

october's thousand year flood was one that challenged the state in a way few nationals the -- disasters ever have. i cannot give enough credit to general bob livingston, secretary of transportation kristy hall, and other leaders of the agency, who understood that can't is not an option. they knew they could not leave until we made sure we had done everything in our power to keep people safe, provide aid to those in need, and strengthen our citizens with the information and resources to move forward. please help me thank a good -- group of people who did not back down from a historic challenge, one i am proud to call team

with good reason, we talk a lot about things south carolina does well. the records we are breaking, the rankings showing us rising to the top -- number one in foreign investment. number one exporter of tires. one of the fastest-growing economies on the east coast. the friendliest stay in the country. the most patriotic. all of south carolina should take pride in those facts. there are others, however, we talk about less, and that we should never be proud of. there is no excuse for south carolina to rank as the state in america with the highest percentage of women killed by men. domestic violence is an issue that has plagued us for far too long.

us to that extent no more. last year, general assembly passed a very real, very important bill to help rid south carolina of the poison of domestic violence. thank you for all the work that went into sending that bill to my desk. but we also know domestic violence epidemic is not going to be fixed by legislation allowed. in -- alone. in order to truly solve the problem, it will take a complete culture change. a year ago, we established a domestic violence task force with 135 members, representing 65 organizations across south carolina. we committed to educating ourselves and each other about every aspect that a survivor goes through, and all the contact points touched when a situation occurs. contact points that could be

we looked at not just the root causes, but also had these cases were being handled, county by county, throughout the state. we learned a lot. and we are taking action. first, the victims are not victims. they are survivors. we know that domestic violence is a choice the abuser makes, not the survivor. we need a culture of empowerment, rather than three victim's age and -- re- victimization. second, they need to know we have their backs. we need lawyers, not prosecutors. we need officers to be officers in the field, and we need prosecutors to be prosecutors in the courtroom. south carolina is one of only three states that allow law enforcement officers to try domestic violence crimes.

my executive budget includes additional prosecutors to fix the problem. no survivor deserves to show up in court and feet legally untrained police officers arguing his or her side, while a highly paid defense lawyer argues on behalf of the abuser. if you join me and south carolina, no abuser ever wins again. [applause] there is more that we have done and still more to do. that is why i have extended the task force. after the action we have taken together this past year, survivors of domestic violence across south carolina can take comfort knowing that their government, and the people of our state see them, hear them, and that they are no longer alone.

growing up in denver, we did not know what we didn't have. for me, that is not the case anymore. i know exactly what we didn't have. after visiting hundreds of schools across our state, i know exactly what many of today's kids don't have. i have seen the disparities and i will not stand by and allow them to continue. we want to raise our children to know they are worthy of a good education. we want to raise our children with confidence and resources, said they believe the sky is the limit. our focus for the last three years has been -- all of us did that together. we change the funding formula so no one can ever say again that we educate children based solely on where they are born in and raised.

quit reading coaches in every elementary school and will know longer pass a child out of the third grade if they cannot read. thanks to your support, wealthy districts are not the only ones investing in technology anymore. meaning wealthy districts are not the only ones that teach their students for the future, not the past. thanks to your support, we did it all without raising taxes. but we are not done. first, we need to let the voters of south carolina decide if they want the governor to appoint the superintendent of education. education must be a priority for every governor. to be successful, every governor must have a partner in the education department. superintendent spearman has been a great partner, but the history of south carolina shows that has not always been the case, and our children have suffered as a

this is a change that will not take place until i'm long gone from the governor's office, so it is not for my benefit that i ask you support -- to support this initiative. it is for our children, and for theirs. second, we have high turnover of teachers in rural and challenged school districts. that affects a child since they do not have consistency, and it affects teachers who are either constantly adapting to new environments, or constantly watching their colleagues believe this will be the. first -- colleagues leave. this will be the first year we aggressively start recruiting teachers to rural districts, and incentivizing them to stay. if a student agrees to teach in a challenged district for eight years, we will cover the full cost of their education at a state university.

to that commitment, we will repay their student loans. for career educators want to grow professionally and teach in these challenged districts, we will cover the costs of graduate coursework. we will support mentorship programs for all of the above. children deserve to know that teachers believe in them enough to stay. we have to slow the revolving door. i know we can. and now, i know we will. finally, we cannot continue to ignore that in much of our stay, we have a facilities problem. children cannot learn as well when the walls of their classrooms are crumbling around them. teachers cannot teach as well when the hallways they walk are littered with puddles. students and teachers deserve no less than to go to school each day in a place that is safe and clean.

been much discussion about putting a bond bill. i am not unilaterally opposed to using the bonding capacity to serve the most critical needs of the state. there are times it makes sense. it is why i signed a bill in 2012 to use that, capacity to invest, $1 billion in our roads. it is why i have supported using that for extraordinary economic development projects. it is also why i oppose last year, and will oppose this year, any effort to bond out hundreds of millions of dollars to fill a wish list for an already bloated higher education system. no one can look at the tuition hikes parents and students have seen over the last decade and tell me that higher education doesn't have enough money. no one can drive to campuses of clemson and south carolina, and

brand-new facilities, and massive new construction projects, and tell me that they represent our greatest need. that is not true of elementary, mellow -- middle, and high schools in denmark, or abbeville. here is what i propose. let's pass legislation permanently dedicating up to 1% of the states on capacity for k-12 facilities. i do not propose all school districts and south carolina are eligible for state support. nor do i propose the school districts themselves determine whether or not they qualify. this must be a pharaoh priority-based process -- thorough priority based process, that the district that truly need help get it, and those that don't, don't. it starts with a complete

which children are currently attending schools. it includes the development of a strict set of living standards,, so that school districts will be able to build age and size appropriate schools, but not break the bank or wasted millions of dollars on architects and blueprints. dollars that would be far better spent if the money actually touched a child and a teacher. finally, it includes restrictions on local government. we are not helping school districts construct the schools so they can turn around and raise taxes on their people to build another one, or worse, another extravagant one. we have the opportunity to help who need it most. we have the opportunity to give dedicated teachers a safe place that allows them to do what they have always wanted -- impact the lives of their students. we had the opportunity to do it

we can waste that opportunity if we so choose on high-rise dorms, sparkling new graduate centers, and world-class administrative buildings. but if we don't focus on k-12 now, higher education won't even be a possibility for far too many south carolina children. last year, i told you i didn't know what else to say about ethics reform. that we have talked about it for years, and we were not asking that much. just for some simple common sense, good government changes. yet, here we are again. our two main priorities have not changed. requiring public officials to disclose who pays them, and having independent investigators oversee legislators, just like

the house has passed both